A general pricing guide for the 10 day trip I am told will be around $2400 pp and we need to get dates sorted out ASAP as they do not stay open long. I suggest a mini safari on the resident safari boat together with a stay at the main lodge. A nights hotel in Moron or similar and transfers will be included in the price.
Return Flights to Camaguey are not inc.

I'm waiting for trip date details and stuff. Will have to figure out going through MExico, too -- I'm not so sure that an American airline will check a bag all the way through to Cuba. IT will just be a minor hassle.

I haven't palnned somthing for this time yet an Cuba sounds nice (My cigar stock is running low ;-) ) (and its cheaper than the trip to Micronesia i was thinking about). But I can't say for sure yet and i still want to wait if i can stand a goldfish outside his glass ;-)

I have been asked to go out to Egypt at the end of this month to train new diveguides onboard the MV Royal Emperor. This will take a month to orientate them from north to south. They are qualified instructors but I don't think they are very experienced divers (Typical Scenario). However I should get plenty of time for photography.

You are welcome to join one of the weekly expeditions should you wish.

I will be back in UK on Sunday next so it's easier for me to organise things.

Unfortunately, some of us would lose our jobs if the gub'ment ever found out we set foot in Cuba. Guess our Congressman still want to keep that little vacation spot to themselves for now . . . . I do need to get back in the water soon, though. Looked at a quick trip on the Nekton Rohrqual, but even though they're discounting at the moment I'm not too sure about spending that much money to dive the Bahamas.

What "supposedly" happens is Americans fly to Canada, and then fly to Cuba. When arriving in Cuba the immigration people do not stamp their passport so it does not show they were there. I believe the payment for the Cuba leg goes through a Canadian travel agency.

Wasn't there a law passed last year that excludes Tourists from this ludicrous circumstance?

No. There was a move to do it but it never got past the politicians who pander to the Cuban ex-patriots in FL (remember, W.'s brother is governor there) for campaign contributions. Here's a link to the State Department's site on the matter:

If memory serves, there was an entire scuba club caught up in the same thing, but I can't find that article at the moment. They ended up paying the Treasury Department several thousand dollars each to settle the claim. Of course, in the case outlined by the article above, one can just blame the diver for being a bonehead when going back through customs but when you read the Scubacan instructions, you just have to laugh at the circle of lies involved involved in trying to circumvent the authorities. This whole thing is just another example of changing policies to fit political expediency. China is far worse than Cuba from a human rights perspective, yet we trade with them because of a "once they see how well capitalism works, we'll convert them" attitude (not the mention the fact that lots of US companies who give large sums of money to Congressmen want to trade there). However, when it comes to Cuba, the same policy isn't good enough because the money comes from the other side of the equation. Sigh . . .

Maybe I can apply for a license to do "research into the psychology of euphoric reactions to the combination of pressurized oxygen-nitrogen mixtures and digital media"